Daily Archives: April 11, 2009

Chris Low has a very nice spring practice wrap up piece about Coach Richt. In this day and age of musical coaching chairs in college football, it’s somewhat amazing to let this sink in:

… It’s still hard to believe that he’s the longest-tenured coach in the SEC at his current school. Steve Spurrier has coached in the league for 16 years, but that’s split between Florida and South Carolina.

Richt, 49, is entering his ninth season at Georgia. The next closest is Johnson, who’s entering his eighth season at Vanderbilt. Rich Brooks has been at Kentucky for six years, and nobody else in the league has more than four years at his current school.

Spurrier told me last year that he thought the days of a coach making it 15-plus years at one school in the SEC were pretty much over…

As someone who accepts as a general principle that any day with a college football game, no matter how lame or contrived it may be, has something to recommend about it, I’m glad today is here.

I just don’t go into these spring games expecting much, that’s all. And that’s particularly the case this year, because of all the injuries and also because one of the areas where I’m hoping to see noticeable improvement – special teams on kickoffs – won’t be on display at all.

So I’ll just settle for seeing a few fun things and hoping nobody does anything too embarrassing.

“I will admit I was sitting there watching [Florida’s game] on TV, and the first thing I did was pick up the phone and call [a staffer] and say, ‘We got to get our spring game televised,’” Georgia athletics director Damon Evans said.

In part to accommodate ESPN’s schedule, Georgia coach Mark Richt started spring practice a week later than usual so the G-Day game — the culmination of spring ball — would be played on Saturday. Kickoff is 1 p.m. in Sanford Stadium.

Georgia won’t receive a rights fee for the telecast, which Evans sees as a branding and marketing tool.

“The exposure,” he said, “is the reward in and of itself.”

For Richt, the reward is that the telecast might reach a future recruit in some far-flung place.

“You just never know who’s going to watch the game and get excited about Georgia,” he said.

Junior speaks on his vision for the program, and I find it a little depressing.

On The Difference in Today’s Players: Unfortunately, the number one thing that is on their mind is the NFL. You’ve got to understand that. You’ve got to motivate them in the classroom and in the community as well, but it’s so money driven and professionally driven to get to the NFL and make the money as fast as you can.

When we get this program really rolling, we’re going to deal with a lot of three-year kids. We’re going to deal with a lot of kids that if they don’t get injured and they follow our direction and take our coaching, in three years they’re going to be in the NFL.

I wish it was different. I wish it was not like this. But it is the way it is. I think we can deal with it extremely well.

On UT being an NFL Pipeline: That’s the reality of it. That’s what kids are thinking. Do you get some kids that are highly motivated to get their degree? Sure you do. But they’re not all like that. That’s just not how society is today.

So we have to know that. We think that we are a pipeline to the NFL. The drills that we do, our systems on offense and defense are straight from the NFL. They (prospects) are getting coaches that have coached in the NFL. They’re getting coaches that have coached a ton of first-round draft picks — 11 national championships between this staff and a Super Bowl championship.

We do know what it takes to get guys there. We’ve sat in draft rooms for years. We know what it takes and we know how to get you there…

Ultimately, there’s just something soulless about reducing your program to nothing more than a minor league franchise for the National Football League. No matter how much talent you arrange to process for your professional masters.

Quote Of The Day

“It brings back a great Bulldog running back in Thomas who has NFL playing experience and has had success as a college coach at multiple schools. He also inherits a position that has been built to an elite level by Bryan. And it gives Bryan the opportunity to return to coaching the position he played and the one where he cut his teeth serving as a graduate assistant under wide receiver coach John Eason here at UGA. It also provides him with a new experience as a passing game coordinator.” -- Mark Richt, AB-H, 2/16/15